Twitter Data Demonstrates One Direction Should Replace Niall with Obama

Despite the fact that we have three more awful weeks left in this trash-fire year, Twitter has already released its Year in Review, containing, among other things, the year’s most popular tweets, as measured byretweets.

The Most Retweeted page in particular offers a fascinating look at the inner popularity dynamics of British boy band OneDirection.

That tweet was directed at One Direction member Zayn Malik, who had just revealed that he was leaving the group. Zayn had the second-most-RT’d tweet of the year in August, when he publicly came out in support of the lads’ new sing “Drag MeDown.”

So, for those counting, the top three tweets of the year were all from members of 1D. The streak is broken by the fourth-most-retweeted tweet: Barack Obama’s tweet supporting the Supreme Court’s legalization of gaymarriage.

Today is a big step in our march toward equality. Gay and lesbian couples now have the right to marry, just like anyone else. #LoveWins

Niall, my dude, please get it together. You have 23.7 million followers, and all you could muster was 322,000 retweets. Embarrassing. The other 1D boys, and Zayn, are out there every day, busting their butts to give the fans what they want: the hottest, most social content on the web. Niall, please step up your tweet game in 2016. Shape up or you’ll be replaced with the only man out there who commands as much retweet respect as your brothers in arms: BarackObama.